In case you haven’t noticed Afghanistan has sort of become a major hotbed of resistance to our military. There has been heavy fighting and far too many deaths of our military personnel. One thing that seems the most disappointing to me about Iraq and Afghanistan is how the local citizens do not seem fully committed to their freedom. As Americans I am not sure that we can completely understand this because most of us were born free and continue to live free.
It’s an oft repeated story, government’s abuse of power discriminated against a group. In this case the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) denied loans to black farmers based on race. A group of black farmers (I wonder why they are “black” farmers and not “African-American” farmers) sued and after a while the USDA admitted to the discrimination. The USDA settled the Pigford vs Glickman case and agreed to pay affected black farmers $50,000 per claim. Here is my first hiccup. The USDA, while a bloated bureacracy, is made up of people some of whom discriminated against black farmers. None of the article that I read mentioned anything about people being fired, going to jail, or being fined because of the offenses. Yet another case of government screwing up and costing us money.
That job description for a Pony Express rider would not garner much attention today, but that was the genesis of today’s postal service. The only qualifications that might match are the age requirement and the need for a driver’s license. Unlike most people I have respect for the United States Postal Service. Their troubles have been well documented by both liberals and conservatives as the USPS is a very popular agency to point to regarding the failure of government.
While many of us conservatives are not the least bit surprised that Democrat leaders don’t understand the hopes, fears, desires, expectations we have for our country, I have been more than a little surprised at the blindness of so many Republicrats to the same issues. As a registered Republican (though not for long – can you say independent) I was rather discouraged when our presidential nominee was ordained long before the primary in my state. Even more perplexing was the fact that Democrat voters and pundits had more say in that selection than millions of registered Republicans. The turnout in the 2008 election is a testament to the disgust many of us felt, though I swallowed and voted for Palin/McCain.
This posting is a quiz based on recent news stories and will test your ability to discern the correct answers to the questions. Good Luck!
Are you smarter than politicians?
Question 1: Senator John McCain and Senator Tom Coburn recently released a report, Summertime Blues, detailing some of the worst cases of wasted tax dollars. We have almost become immune to these types pet projects that scream WASTE! I don’t know where Sen. Coburn stands on the issue of earmark, but Senator McCain has been steadfast in his fight against them and has refused to participate and we should celebrate his efforts. One of the items on the list was a mere $712,883.00 to build a machine that tells jokes. Here is the test. Which of the following is the machine?
Marketing is defined as:
Synonyms: vend, merchandise, peddle
Notable Quotable:
“Never… ever suggest they don’t have to pay you. What they pay for, they’ll value. What they get for free, they’ll take for granted, and then demand as a right. Hold them up for all the market will bear..”
Lois McMaster Bujold
Can you give an example?
Update – many on the conservative side breathed a cautious sigh of relief when General David Petraeus was placed in charge of the NATO war effort in Afghanistan. Not many criticized his predecessor, General Stanley McChrystal, but there were grumbles about how he handcuffed his troops through tight rules of engagement as discussed in the original post.
Patraeus was seen as perhaps more of a warrior who would take the gloves off and permit our soldiers to do what soldiers do in war…kill the enemy and break things. To many Patraeus was Patton. As expected General Patraeus did modify the complex rules of engagement in Afghanistan. He actually made them even more stringent in an attempt to win the support of the Afghan people.
Torture, enhanced interrogation, or Extreme Measures
What then would you do to get that information? If you only had 20 minutes to save your loved one and the person wanted his lawyer would you provide one? My guess is that you would do pretty much anything to save your child. I would. So what happens to you after the dust has settled? You have broken the law. Vince Flynn
I may be on the cusp of hitting it big or hit the “tipping point.” I came across an explosive White House document as I searched the Internet earlier in the week. I wasn’t sure whether to publish it as I don’t have a lot of money to defend myself from Big Brother. This document has the potential to bring down politicians at a very high level.
This single page document seems to outline the strategy as the White House and the Democrats pursue their transformation of America. The ingenuity of the document is its flexibility as it can be modified and adjusted to fit multiple goals. I had seen similar documents, but they were in chemistry books and dealt with waste treatment. You can be the judge whether this constitutes “waste treatment.”
Politicians and government officials you just have to love them. Okay you really don’t have to love them, but they do the darndest things. As I sat through a recent presentation by a transportation official who was selling a program to construct additional roads within his district. I don’t know if you have heard, but there is a lot of stimulus money for shovel-ready projects to create billions of new jobs. It should not be a surprise to have a transportation agency wanting to build more roads. That’s the left hand.
